Tag Archives: ID-Cards

Eric Zuesse RINF Alternative News Frances Robles of The New York Times headlined on July 9th, “Fleeing Gangs, Children Head to U.S. Border” and reported: More than half of the top 50 Central American cities from which children are leaving for the United ...

Officials are being allowed to trawl databases including the Royal Mail and the Student Loans Company to track down missing voters in a new trial. Data matching could be used to fill in gaps in the electoral register ahead of ...

IAN BURRELL, The Independent | The Government will announce details this month of a controversial national identity scheme which will allow people to use their mobile phones and social media profiles as official identification documents for accessing public services. People wishing to ...

David Neal | ACCORDING TO the UK’s Identity Minister, the Government’s ID cards won’t be worth the paper they’ll be printed on. Despite the fact that the cards are almost in UK citizens’ wallets there is still a lot of ...

Nine staff have been sacked from their local authority jobs for snooping on personal records of celebrities and personal acquaintances held on the core database of the government’s National Identity Scheme. Mark Ballard They are among 34 council workers who ...

IT IS simply wrong of James Hall, CEO of the Identity & Passport Service, to suggest that the personal information stored on the National Identity Register is equivalent to the data already collected for passports. The passport database requires only ...

The Indian government plans to give all of its 1.2 billion citizens biometric ID cards, and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani will lead the project. The project team will face a huge challenge in securing the information stored, which will be ...

IBM’s contract to supply technology for ID cards will last seven years, despite the possibility that a change in government could scupper the scheme. The company and the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) announced the contract term on Friday. In ...

The card itself is just the useless bit of plastic that is the visible part of the scheme, and is the only part that will become voluntary. The truly intrusive part of the scheme, the National Identity Register, remains compulsory. ...

Readers may be aware that the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, has announced that the planned ID cards will be “voluntary”, and that no-one will have to carry one. However, the Government is still pressing ahead with its plan to make ...

The Conservatives have accused the government of burying the cost of ID cards in a hike in the price of passports. Yesterday the government announced an increase in the price of a 10-year adult passport from £72 to £77.50 in ...

Home secretary Alan Johnson has flatly denied killing off the ID card programme with his announcement last week that the scheme will be entirely voluntary for UK citizens. He delivered the denial in a Commons debate in which a Tory ...

ID cards have finally reached the Commons again, with a Conservative opposition day debate on the scheme due for debate this afternoon. The opposition is calling for the plan to be scrapped altogether. This has been given additional momentum by ...

GORDON Brown’s main rival for the Labour leadership tore up the government’s key ID card policy without informing the Prime Minister, it was reported last night. The Home Secretary Alan Johnson is said to have surprised the Prime Minister and ...

Home secretary Alan Johnson’s pledge that the government will not make ID cards compulsory is not a U-turn on policy, according to first secretary Lord Mandelson. The business minister said the government had “always made clear we want to move ...

The Home Secretary has come under renewed fire from civil liberties campaigners for distorting the truth about the compulsory introduction of Identity registration. This week new Home Office supremo Alan Johnson backtracked on a proposal to force around 30,000 airport ...

Minister for community safety Fergus Ewing has written to the new UK home secretary Alan Johnson asking for the scheme to be cancelled. He has disputed claims by UK immigration minister Phil Woolas that the scheme would bring economic benefits ...

Why are we asking this now? The Government had been due to award a key contract as part of its grand biometric ID card scheme this autumn. Three companies – Thales, Fujitsu and IBM – were bidding for the ...

RINF NEWS The controversial and unpopular ID card scheme, due to be implimented by 2012, might never see the light of day according to the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling. Mr Grayling has contacted five companies chosen to bid for Identity Cards ...

Lord Steyn will say the controversial scheme is “unnecessary”, un-British and should be scrapped. It comes as a senior Tory attacks the Government for not safeguarding our right to privacy and demand a reversal of the growth of the “Big ...

A review of the principles underpinning the government’s £6billion national identity card scheme is among the first orders of Alan Johnston, the new home secretary. Unnamed sources close to Jacqui Smith’s successor confirmed to the Sunday Times that he was ...

Westminster speculation has raised a new question mark over the future of the government’s flagship identity card scheme, following news of the forthcoming departure of home secretary Jacqui Smith. Smith was one of the main driving forces behind the ID ...

COUNCIL leaders in Sheffield said they will not allow the city to take part in trials of the Government’s identity card system after Manchester signed up for a pilot project. Sheffield Council leaders will place a motion before the council ...

By Anthony Hildebrand | A new BBC series looks at surveillance in the UK. It’s something the industry could learn from, says I4S editor Anthony Hildebrand. Last Monday the BBC broadcast the first in a new three-part series called ‘Who’s ...

The government issued a little-reported document this month on ID cards. It was quietly published when the home secretary Jacqui Smith announced that some volunteer members of the public in Greater Manchester would be the first to receive ID ...

By John Oates | The Home Office has confirmed there is still no timetable for the rollout of ID card readers, without which carrying out effective ID checks is impossible. So even though the government is continuing to foist the cards ...

Identity specialist TSSI has branded the new government-led ID card scheme to launch in Manchester as premature. In a speech made today, (covered in the BBC article ‘Manchester launch for ID cards’) Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has stated that anyone ...

The Labour Government seem to be intent on their freedom and civil liberties “scorched earth” policy of inflicting the controversial centralised biometric database National Identity Register on us ahead of the General Election. Will Parliament rubber stamp these 4 new ...

By SA Mathieson | If start up costs of £300m are included, the National Identity Scheme looks set to cost government and citizens around £4.3bn more than the cost of current passports over a decade. This is more than triple ...

THE government’s controversial ID card plans are ‘hugely risky’ according to a legal expert. Manchester will be the first city where citizens will be invited to apply for an ID card from this autumn, ahead of the national roll-out in ...

By Tom Espiner | Security and legal experts have questioned the viability of a government plan to capture biometrics in high-street shops for its ID card scheme. The Home Office announced on Wednesday that organisations, including the Post Office and ...

THE Government today vowed to press ahead with the hated £5 billion ID cards – and roll the scheme out within months. Ignoring furious opposition over the staggering cost of the project at a time of economic crisis, Home Secretary ...

By Ian Dunt | The Home Office will pilot test the ID cards scheme in Manchester, Jacqui Smith announced today. Residents will be able to apply for an ID card this autumn, before the rest of the country in 2012. ...

AIRLINE pilots will resist the ID card scheme ‘with all legal means possible’, according to their union Balpa. The scheme is to be trialled at Manchester and London City Airports but Balpa said its members were overwhelmingly against it. Balpa ...

RINF News A senior Cabinet minister has sparked a flurry of speculation that the national ID card scheme will be axed to ease public spending and reduce Britain’s debts. The controversial ID card scheme will cost the taxpayer more than £5bn, ...

SOUTH Derbyshire MP Mark Todd has called on the Government to abandon its plans for ID cards. Since November, ID cards have been compulsory for foreign nationals living in the UK and will become mandatory for workers at Manchester and ...

By John Lettice | Plans to make ID cards compulsory for UK citizens at some point in the middle distance have been officially abandoned, apparently. According to the Home Office’s revised counter-terrorism strategy document, published today, “It is not our intention ...

The UK’s controversial DNA database and ID cards register are in breach of European data protection and rights laws, according to a new report by the Rowntree Trust published this week. The report slams Britain’s ‘database state’, claiming that 11 ...

One of the many disgraceful aspects about the disgraceful ID card programme is the reluctance of the UK government to make key documents available. For such a momentous change in the relationship of government to governed, it is critically important ...

By Leo King | The government was warned about the technical feasibility and merits of its highly controversial £4.7 billion ID cards scheme, according to the just published findings of two Gateway reviews. The reviews, conducted in 2003 and 2004 ...

By Tony Collins | The Office of Government Commerce is seriously considering publishing two early Gateway reviews on ID cards – after four years of trying to stop their publication under the Freedom of Information Act. Computer Weekly has learned ...

SOUTH Derbyshire MP Mark Todd has called on the Government to abandon its plans for ID cards. Since November, ID cards have been compulsory for foreign nationals living in the UK and will become mandatory for workers at Manchester and ...

By Nick Heath The government’s controversial ID card project ran into more trouble today, as the scheme was snubbed by both airline pilots and the Scottish government. Lawyers for the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) said they are examining whether ...

The Scottish Government today denounced Westminster plans for identity cards as “unacceptable”. In a strongly-worded letter to the Home Office, community safety minister Fergus Ewing said the Scottish Government remained “completely opposed” to the scheme. He told junior Home Office ...

By Martin Bentham British citizens will be “seriously harmed” by breaches of the Government’s identity card scheme and other national databases, a report by technology experts warned today. The report, whose authors were commissioned by firms including Microsoft, BT and ...

Reading borough councillors could not be less enthusiastic about the Government’s proposed ID card scheme if they tried. They agreed on Tuesday last week that they: – Opposed the introduction of National Identity Cards – Did not believe they would ...

The Home Secretary will be spreading the message on identity cards among schoolchildren today. Jacqui Smith is meeting students before attending a police presentation on combating gang-related crime in Manchester. She is visiting Newall Green High School in ...

Stewart Hefferman explores the potential pitfalls of the Government’s national ID card scheme, raising concerns that it may be vulnerable to cloning if more thought isn’t put into its implementation. Members of the public, the national press and even security ...

Overseer wanted for controversial £4.7 billion UK national identity cards scheme By creating a watchdog post, the Home Office hopes to reassure the public that their data is safe By Leo King The government has advertised for an independent commissioner ...

By Hywel Trewyn CALLS to put Welsh on new ID cards are at last to be considered by the Government. The U-turn follows pressure from language campaigners who say it would be an insult if English-only cards were issued in ...

By Kaya Burgess The Labour administration in 1978 believed the introduction of ID cards would be “unacceptable” and “objectionable” in the fight against illegal immigration, confidential documents released today show. The comments were in a draft statement due to be ...

ID cards for foreign students have been opposed by the University of Nottingham Students’ Union. All new international students and those renewing visas now have to register for the compulsory ID cards, since Government legislation was introduced last month. Those ...

The Home Office has claimed that businesses in Sheffield can now be reassured that employees from overseas are working for them legally, due to the introduction of identity verification cards. Foreign nationals will now be able to record their biometric ...

By Lewis Page | The latest Home Office poll on public attitudes to the planned National ID card indicates that support for the scheme has eroded slightly, with the proportion of those in favour down from 60 to 55 per cent. ...

NO2ID has received a Leaked Home Office document that seeks to take away the fundemental civil liberties of any worker on the government’s intrusive and unwanted ID card scheme. A secret Home Office document leaked to campaign group NO2ID yesterday ...

Ministers trying to extend identity card scheme by stealth say Lib Dems Commenting on reports that measures will be introduced to allow state officials to demand a person’s proof of identity at all times, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris ...

When the Government introduced its ID card legislation several years ago, it made one thing clear. Even though it would be obligatory to register on the ID database when obtaining a new passport, it would not be compulsory to carry ...

By Nick Ward | POLICE made a dozen arrests after a group of anarchists staged a protest at the Home Office buildings in Sheffield. Members of the Anarchists’ Federation arrived at Vulcan House in Millsands on the Riverside in Sheffield ...

The first batch of biometric identity cards issued in Britain last week to foreigners are not being read because the government failed to issue a single scanner in time. Machines that scan fingerprints and facial details were meant to be ...

Telegraph | For the first time since 1952, the British government is issuing identity cards. In order to test the system and ease its introduction, there is to be a cynical requirement for foreign nationals resident in the UK to ...

University experts fear the “disturbing” Government scheme to bring in ID cards for foreign nationals will increase racial discrimination. From today, foreign nationals applying to enter or remain in the UK must apply for a credit-card sized biometric identity card. ...

By PHIL BOOTH and GUY HERBERT | From this month the Government begins issuing what it calls, with an obvious nasty spin, “ID cards for foreigners”. You may not be aware what this means in practice. First affected will be ...

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will issue the first ID cards to foreign nationals on Tuesday, the start of the roll-out of the controversial multi-billion pound scheme. Students and those who enter the country on marriage visas will now be ...

PEOPLE may be aware that from this month the Government begins issuing what it calls with an obvious nasty spin “ID cards for foreigners.” They may not be aware what this means in practice. First affected will be students and ...

By John Oates | The Scottish Parliament has voted against the government’s proposed ID cards, in a gesture of Phythonian futility. Members of the Scottish Parliament decided the cards would not deter crime, would not add to security and would ...

Less than 30 percent of the UK public wants to enrol for ID cards at private-sector retailers, despite the home secretary’s promotion of such locations. Only 25 percent of more than 2,000 people questioned for the government’s Central Office of ...

By Ben Russell | The first wave of ID cards to be issued to British citizens has prompted airline pilots to threaten a strike rather than accept the documents. Aviation workers have warned that proposals to make airport staff ...

The taxpayer will have to compensate a French firm for lost profits if the Government’s controversial national identity card scheme is cancelled at short notice. By David Barrett | Under the terms of a £5 billion contract signed by the ...

Opponents of ID cards have renewed their attacks on the scheme, claiming security is being watered down even as the cost of the cards rises. By Nick Heath | Cards will only be checked against biometric details on the National ...

By Christian Harris | The world’s gone security crazy. Everywhere we go stronger measures are being implemented to combat impersonation, ID theft and fraud. Following news that a leading chain of kiddie’s nurseries in the UK is requiring parents to ...

The UK ID card will be a reality for foreign nationals later on this month and in Britons hands next year. We look at its long and often tortuous process in 2008. By Asavin Wattanajantra 23 January 2008: Leaked documents ...

By Danny Brierley | LONDON City Airport has agreed to a trial of the Government’s identity card scheme, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was due to announce today. Workers at the site in Newham and at Manchester Airport will be the ...

By Karl Flinders | Government will ask businesses to bid to become centres to collect biometric data for ID cards, in the latest move in its plan to create a biometric database of the population. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ...

Claims that identity cards will protect against terrorism are ‘absolute bunkum’ – says an expert at the government’s intelligence agency. JOHN HIGGINSON The £4billion card scheme is really part of Labour’s agenda to cut costs and bureaucracy by ensuring public ...

The British Airline Pilots Association union has warned it may seek a judicial review of the government’s ID cards scheme to prevent pilots being forced to carry identity cards. By Natasha Lomas | As part of a phased introduction of ID ...

Kablenet.com | Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, has criticised the ID-card scheme, among other government projects, in his speech at the Conservative conference. In Birmingham on Tuesday, Grieve said the public is “fed up with the creeping growth of a ...

Identity cards could be handed out to children as young as 14, a home office minister has suggested. The first ID cards are due to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds from 2010 as part of a plan to introduce ...

By Nick Heath | The government has taken another step towards tying up which companies will be in charge of the UK ID cards scheme. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has further whittled down the companies shortlisted to deliver ...

The National Identity Scheme will produce just 50,000 cards in its first few months – and has yet to define the role or budget of its commissioner. In response to a parliamentary written question from Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary ...

The Liberal Democrats yesterday accused both Labour and the Conservatives of ducking the hard decisions on police reform in favour of a sentencing arms race, as they launched their proposals for fundamental reform of the way the police are run. ...

The UK Border Agency has given a start date to compulsory identity cards, for foreign nationals applying to stay in the country as students or through marriage From 25 November, applicants from outside the European Economic Area in these two ...

From the Blog of Kev: I will refuse to comply with any compulsary ID card scheme. but only if 1,000 other UK people will do the same. Deadline to pledge 31st December 2008, pledge creator Ken Hall In light of ...

The Government was under pressure today to abandon its ID card plans after one of the main firms involved in the project lost thousands of criminals’ personal details. The names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in ...

By Etan Smallman | Trust Britain’s youth to be characteristically ungrateful. The Government goes to all the effort of making a website for 16 to 25- year-olds to express their views on identity cards, and all they get in return ...

By Ian Grant | The cost of the government’s controversial £4.4bn national identity card scheme, could rise significantly because of the difficulties reading fingerprints of older people, a government watchdog says.Chief Scientist John Beddington, chairman of the Biometrics Assurance Group, ...

Opposition MPs accused the Government last night of being naive in believing that new microchipped passports would be foolproof against criminals involved in identity theft. After The Times disclosed that new passports could be cloned and manipulated in minutes and ...

By Jeremy Kirk | Thales has won a four-year contract worth £18 million for the UK’s national ID card programme, which aims to keep closer track of its citizens to cut down on crime and fraud. The contract is the ...

By Jimmy Burns | The Home Office on Tuesday faced claims of “creative accounting” as it pledged to cut nearly £1bn ($2bn) from the cost of the identity card scheme. According to the latest official estimates, a broadening of the ...

By David Meyer | It’s not going to be compulsory to carry around ID cards. Honestly. So said Stephen Harrison, policy director at the ID & Passport Service, when asked today at the Westminster eForum on ID cards, surveillance and data ...

As the current spate of murders and knife-related attacks reaches a new high with another four violent deaths, we should maybe get things in a proper context. Millions of pounds are being committed to the prevention of terrorism, not least ...

By Andy Rowell and Michael Gillard | A spin doctor behind David Davis and his much-vaunted “freedom” campaign against creeping state surveillance is an influential figure in the worldwide promotion of identity cards. Kevin Bell is vice-president of Fleishman-Hillard, a ...

PT | Representatives of the UK’s aviation workers say they are being used as political pawns to further the UK government’s controversial ID cards programme. The British Air Transport Association (BATA) says aviation workers are being used as guinea ...

By John Lettice | The bosses of the UK’s major airlines have attacked plans to force airport workers to enrol in the national ID card scheme, claiming that “the UK aviation industry is being used for political purposes on a ...

By Geraint Bevan | THE organisation NO2ID will not be represented officially inside the Home Office’s secretive ID consultation at the Barcelo Carlton Hotel in Edinburgh today. Despite repeated requests, officials have decided that my fellow campaigners and I are ...

NINE protesters were arrested in Edinburgh yesterday following a demonstration at government plans to introduce ID cards. The arrests, all in connection with breach of the peace offences, were made at the Barcelo Carlton Hotel. The North Bridge hotel was ...

By James Kirkup | The Prime Minister used a speech in London to defend his Government’s record on civil liberties in the light of last week’s Labour rebellion over the detention of terror suspects and the high-profile challenge being mounted ...

QAS | The Commons’ home affairs committee has submitted a report warning of the danger of Britain becoming a surveillance society. The report calls on the government to promise the proposed ID card scheme will not be used to spy ...

By Brian Brady | Compulsory identity cards could be used to spy on people, MPs warn today. Members of the Home Affairs Select Committee say they are concerned that the way the authorities use sensitive data gathered in the multibillion-pound ...

By Anthea Lipsett | Lecturers voted overwhelmingly to oppose and defy the government’s plans to introduce identity cards at the University and College annual congress in Manchester today.The government plans to pilot the controversial identity cards with international students, which ...